Apple’s Two Main Suppliers TSMC and Foxconn Report Solid Revenues but Poor iPhone Sale Concerns Have Held Up

Apple’s two main Asian suppliers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), and Hon Hai Precision Industry have both revealed a 5.6 percent increase in November sales, which may reflect strongly on Apple. The Cupertino giant accounts for nearly 50 percent of the assembler Hon Hai’s sales and nearly a fifth of chipmaker TSMC’s. The report comes at a time when various other suppliers such as Qorvo, Cirrus Logic, and Lumentum Holdings, have adjusted or underperformed on their revenue forecasts, owing to reported order cuts from Apple.

TSMC and Foxconn’s November Revenues Can Be a Good Proxy for the iPhone Sales Performance – iPhone XR Said to Be Best-Selling Model

Multiple reports and rumors had claimed last month that Apple’s suppliers were feeling the heat because of the lower sales of iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max. Since TSMC and Foxconn are one of the main supply chain partners of Apple, their revenue is a good indicator of iPhone’s performance. Foxconn reported record revenue of nearly $19.5 billion for the month of November, which raised its January-November sales growth rate to nearly 16 percent, according to the latest report from Bloomberg.

TSMC reported sales of $3.1 billion, which is lower than what it managed to achieve in October. However, the figure is still strong, and demand from Apple is expected to offset the lower cryptocurrency related demand, from which the company greatly benefited last year.

Strong numbers from key iPhone suppliers from the month of November can help counter the negative reports about iPhone’s performance that have been doing rounds recently. However, a monthly report is not that strong an indicator, and it is certainly not enough to counter the other signals.

For instance, Apple has stated that it will stop reporting sales numbers of its products, and only the revenue and profit figures will be provided. This can mean the technology giant is feeling the heat of the smartphone market saturation and plans to mitigate those losses by pushing its service business.

The practice of not reporting unit sales is one most other companies already follow, but it was taken by investors as yet another sign of lower-than-expected demand for the latest iPhones. While the latest revenue reports might put alleviate the ‘reduced iPhone sale’ cries, you can check out our previous coverage below to learn how well Apple’s been doing in the market.